Rewards and penalties have guided individuals and society throughout human history. As generalizations of pleasure and pain, rewards and penalties can be very strong motivators. In fact, rewards alone are enough to help teach dogs some sophisticated tricks. Rewards and penalties together are of course useful for raising children as well as shaping commerce and other dealings in human society. After all, most people like rewards such as ice cream or money, and few people like punishment such as being grounded or spending time in jail.
But there can be too much of a good thing. In a chemical addiction, the apparent reward coming from an addictive substance can become more important to the individual than making good decisions. Addiction treatment centers probably offer retraining to help regain control over oneself in addition to education for making better choices.
While chemical addiction has both physical and psychological components, the physical aspects are not even necessary for bypassing critical thinking. Hackers often send “phishing” e-mail to potential victims, asking for help with some fake urgent situation. In some scenarios, the hacker offers a large financial reward in exchange for a small investment. In other scenarios, the hacker might appeal to the victim’s dislike of other people experiencing problems. In either type of scenario, the goal is to get the victim to unwittingly reveal information that allows access to their bank account. The influence of rewards and penalties makes it easier for hackers to succeed.
On the more legal side, some advertisers also try to use psychology. Like phishing hackers, these advertisers appeal to our fears, hopes and other emotions associated with rewards and penalties. Buying the product or using the service supposedly offers great rewards and avoids or relieves harsh penalties, according to the message they try to communicate.
Much as I would like to put the whole blame for tricky emotional advertising on greedy corporations, political campaigners often do much the same thing. Sadly, political campaigns in the U.S. can be downright nasty and manipulative. Again, there are appeals to hopes and fears but also adding emotions such as anger and values such as unfairness, as well as other logical fallacies for extra trickery. Simplistically portraying an opponent’s complex political decision as one that is clearly morally wrong is all too common. Maybe they can only win if they cloud judgment with strong negative emotions and steer voters away from rational thinking.
We generally think of all this manipulation as being a conscious thing, but it also weighs on our subconscious, especially when emotions are involved. Intentionally manipulating people down to the subconscious level sounds like something a destructive cult does.[1] Coincidence?
On a more global scale, many national and global events and conditions lead to various positive and negative outcomes for large numbers of people. The famed “9/11” terrorist attacks in 2001 led to a decrease in travel and maybe some people losing jobs. The recession around 2008 caused various job losses as well. Some companies even went out business. Fortunately the economy has improved, leading to positive instead of just negative outcomes. The weather provides its share of favorable and unfavorable outcomes. Recent presidential campaigns seem to promote uncertainty, with contradictory claims hiding any clear, obvious path to take.
There obviously are ways of manipulating very large groups of people. Is there by chance an agenda? Of course various conspiracy theories already exist, with famous suspects like the Bilderburg Group.[2] But assuming there’s some kind of large-scale manipulation conspiracy, the goal could be something other than money, political power, or control. The effect of doing this kind of manipulation on a national or global scale is capable of accomplishing something from the large number of coordinated reactions. Is there by chance some product being farmed from the manipulated actions of humans?
Humans have of course been using animals for thousands of years. We have ridden horses, grown cattle and poultry for food, collected eggs, gathered wool from sheep for clothing, and even used birds for carrying messages. Some places farm oysters and deliberately insert physical irritants like sand inside their shells to encourage the production of pearls. We humans seem to have no qualms about manipulating animals for our advantage, even when it means the discomfort or death of the animals.
It’s not a big stretch to consider humans using other humans. It certainly has been a part of human history, with slavery as a major example. Even today desperate people are taken advantage of by companies, with poor working conditions and/or low wages. While animals probably don’t realize they are being used, can the same be said about any large group of people?
If someone or something truly is manipulating a large number of humans in order to produce something without our knowing, the possible list of culprits is quite varied. It could be a corporation, industry, government, other group of people, AI, or even extraterrestrials. One of the scary things is that the culprit would only need to influence someone or something that could influence a large number of people. They could leverage (e.g.) a government, a search engine, a corporation with popular products, or someone in the entertainment industry.
Has this farming-type manipulation ever happened? I don’t know. Is it possible? I definitely think so, though reaching for money, power, or control might be more likely. Should we assume there is such a conspiracy to use our collective effort? Not yet, but we do need to ask some questions. Are significant events and trends being used to covertly exploit us on a large scale and how? Who is doing this? What are the goals? What effects will all this have on us? This may sound like just another outlandish conspiracy theory, but in this case, the theory is that it’s possible, not that it’s actually happening. I think we are at least being nudged in certain directions, and we need to look where we are being nudged to.
References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Meeting
(c) Copyright 2019 by Mike Ferrell
Odd STEM 